Celebs voice public transport announcements

Ozzy Osbourne, Shaun Ryder, Alfie Boe and Miles Kane surprise public transport users with guest announcements on BBC Music Day in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Blackpool.

Ozzy will be bringing his style to Midland Metro Trams in his home town of Birmingham. Black Grape and Happy Monday’s Shaun is lending his laidback tones to the Manchester Metrolink tram network.

The Last Shadow Puppets’ Miles Kane will be surprising travellers as the voice providing information across the Merseyrail network. While Tenor Alfie Boe will delight commuters in his home town of Fleetwood, Lancashire, when he takes over the Blackpool Tramway announcements.

Rebecca Sandiford, Producer, BBC Music Day said: “BBC Music Day aims to unite generations and communities through their love of music, so we thought we’d give commuters a reason to smile as they make their daily journeys.”

Fans will be able to hear clips of the announcements from 7am on the BBC Music Day website BBC Music Day website.

Speaking to BBC 6 Music’s Chris Hawkins on the Early Breakfast show, Shaun Ryder said: “I got asked for BBC Music Day would I come and do some tram announcements and I thought why not, as it’s a good idea. I enjoyed doing it but I will never listen to it myself as I hate listening to my own voice!”

The full interview with Shaun including clips of his passenger announcements on Manchester Metrolink can be heard on the BBC 6 Music website.

Alfie Boe said: “I feel incredibly humbled be an Ambassador for BBC Music Day. Music has always been in my life, and lucky enough for me I have made a career from this. So being able to celebrate and promote the importance of music is a further privilege.”

Miles Kane said: “I think music is one of the most powerful things on earth. It lets you dream, takes you to another world, gives you confidence, makes you sad, brings out emotions that you never thought you had. Music is everything. “An ambassador sounds epic! I’m completely honoured plus it’s amazing that I am able to represent Liverpool and the Wirral, which makes me feel proud of where I’m from.”

Ozzy Osbourne said: “When I was young music was all that mattered to me. As a teenager I was caught in the magical spell of The Beatles and that was all it took. I was gone. Music is still magic to me. It runs through my head all day long and I would never ever want that to stop. Being named one of 2017’s Music Day Ambassadors was an unexpected and wonderful honour. Music has given me such an incredible life so a special day that celebrates this, like BBC Music Day, is better than Christmas to me.”

The surprise tram announcements are part of BBC Music Day on Thursday 15 June, a UK-wide annual celebration of music that aims to unite communities and generations through their love of music. Other Music Day activity taking place includes the unveiling of Music Day plaques across the UK to mark people or places that have influenced the musical landscape, and community events across the UK from mass record attempts for drumming and Bamboo Tamboo in Bradford and Portsmouth to a global wide bell-ringing event. In Portsmouth over a thousand children will gather to create a new drumming world record.